Tag: "Featured"

Guy Fawkes Night

“Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot.  I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.”

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night, more widely known as Bonfire Night, where people up and down Britain gather in the frosty blackness of a November night to celebrate the joyous relief of an event that never happened.

2009 Bonfire Night in Edinburgh, edinburgh-inspiringcapital.com

The story in a nutshell is this; in 1603 a group of conspirators got together and planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London by stacking barrels of gunpowder in the cellar.  The fuse lighter-to be, one Guy or rather “Guido” Fawkes, was caught, tortured and while scheduled to be hung, drawn and quartered, managed to jump to death from the steps of the gallows.  Everyone involved was gathered up and a major act of terrorism was averted.  Phew!

However,  as a few of the juicier details of the foiled plot come to light (no pun intended), it will come as no wonder why over 400 years later people are still marking this day with celebration.  Here is what went down, even if you have no interest in history whatsoever most people will be vaguely familiar with this lady, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Queen Elizabeth I

For quick recap, she was the daughter of Henry the VIII  of England and  his second wife Anne Boleyn.  Now, I want everyone to take a good look at her and understand three main things of great importance.

1.) This is the very LAST person to exclusively hold the title of Queen of England, from this point onwards the crowns of England and Scotland are joined in the United Kingdoms of Britain (Ireland later  joined the Union in 1800).  The current Queen Elizabeth IS NOT the Queen of England, rather her title is Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and it irks Scots tremendously when she – and any other British monarchs after 1603 – are referred to as such, particularly by news media, politicians and in films.

2.) Henry the VIII ditched the Catholic religion in England to marry Elizabeth’s mother Anne (she is the one who Henry later had beheaded – lovely) thus rendering England a Protestant country.  Unlike many other European countries at the time England did not abandon Catholicism on the grounds of a deep theological revolt a la Martin Luther in Germany, rather Henry just want to dump his first wife but the Pope wouldn’t let him.

And finally, 3.) Queen Elizabeth I dies childless (i.e. without and heir).

So say it with me, Queen Elizabeth I was….ENGLISH…..PROTESTANT…..CHILDLESS.

Mary Queen of Scots

Now, here we have Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth’s cousin.  The two Queens had a long and tense relationship which ended in Mary’s imprisonment and ultimate execution by Elizabeth on the count of high treason.  Obviously there is a whole lot more to both Mary and Elizabeth’s lives, realms and interactions with each other but will wrap things up by stating that,

Mary was…SCOTTISH…..CATHOLIC……..HAD A SON ON THE THRONE OF SCOTLAND.

James I and VI (b.1565, ruled (Scotland) 1566 – 1625 and (England) 1603-25)

This is Mary’s son James VI of Scotland. He is SCOTTISH….but PROTESTANT…and THE CLOSEST HEIR TO THE THRONE OF ENGLAND.

 While James had been on the throne of Scotland since 1566, he did not know if he would definitely gain the crown of England until after Mary’s death in 1603.  If you have 3 minutes our ubiquitous voice of Scotland, Neil Oliver can explain way better than I can just how big of a deal this is,  if you click right here on James IV Becomes King of England. (Just be sure to click on the reverse arrow to return here.)

If you don’t have 3 minutes James IV of Scotland becomes the FIRST JOINT MONARCH of the UNITED KINGDOMS OF BRITAIN .  He was crowned as James VI of Scotland but as James I of England (and Wales) and Ireland.  So in this moment the concepts of  “UNITED KINGDOM“, “GREAT BRITAIN” and even soon after the “UNION FLAG” come into being, remember this is 1603.  The crowns are joined by peaceful succession NOT conquest.

James I & VI (just the First as far as the English are concerned) is welcomed warmly in England and pledges to relax some of the persecution that the Catholics had suffered under Queen Elizabeth. The Gunpowder Plot comes into being just two years into James’ rule in England in 1605, and the vast majority of accounts of this plot state the main (and only) motivation was along Catholic and Protestant lines.

True, the new King did falter in his balancing act of appeasing the more Puritanical of the Protestants of his court by heating up the trouble with Catholics, particularly at the Hampton Court Conference of January 1604.  It was here that he began to openly express hostility towards Catholicism and by February all of the previous priests had been expelled and recusancy fine were reintroduced.

Some folks began to snap.

Here is a very well-known engraving of the conspirators behind the Gunpowder Plot.  Some had money, some access, some brains but they were all….ENGLISH…..CATHOLIC….and HATED THE NEW KING.

The plot was to wipe out the King and his entire court on the opening of the House of Parliament and install his ten-year old daughter Elizabeth on the throne to be dominated by a new Catholic power structure.  But as in most big moments in history, the Catholic/ Protestant divide may not have been the whole story.

 BBC Scotland Gunpowder Plot

 This clip is just under 6 minutes long but will highlight a totally different dimension of this age-old plot.  Just click of the BBC Scotland link above to access and don’t forget to hit the reverse arrow to return to this post.  If you don’t have viewing time, suffice to say that Neil Oliver puts forth the theory that this plot was nothing short of an attempt at complete ethnic cleansing of Scots in London.  (I bet you can find those six minutes now, huh?)

Whatever the motivation be it religious, political, tribal or all of the above, thankfully a serious bloodbath was thwarted. (Except for the conspirators who ended up plenty bloody indeed.)  The immediate legacy of the averted crisis was that as the news of the plot spread people were encouraged to light bonfires to celebrate the King’s foiled assassination, and that an Act of Parliament designated the 5th of November as a day  to give thanks to “the joyful day of deliverance” from the near disaster.

On the first anniversary of the plot  in 1606, a sermon of thanks was held at the court of  King James VI & I (later of the King James Bible fame), that was to become the origins of the “Remember, Remember the 5th of November” nursery rhyme.

Mask from “V for Vendetta”

Know let’s be honest, whenever anyone hears that rhyme today the immediate trigger is an image Natalie Portman’s shaven head, the above mask and masses of swarming crowds gathering outside the (current) Houses of Parliament.  The chilling film “V for Vandetta” came to the screens in 2006 and portrays a masked terrorist combats the totalitarian regime of a futuristic London.  This film used this Guy Fawkes riff to great effect, and up until very, very recently the mask of “V” was a bit of a cult movie thang….until the recent Occupy movements began in New York and then in London.

The “V” mask has now been adopted as a symbol of the Occupy London protest in response to what is seen as the new tyranny of the markets and the general lack of accountability of their corporations.

Occupy London Protesters

What is particularly eerie is when huge amounts of people wear these masks backwards covering the rear of their heads.   Whilst this leaves their faced free for things like breathing and chanting from behind the photos show a just a sea of masks.  Very effective in its unnerving visual.

Part 1 of 8 of \”Exploding the Gunpowder Plot\”

 But here is a crucial point, the plot didn’t succeed and “V for Vendetta” is a work of fiction.  There has been much debate throughout history as to whether the gunpowder would have worked even if it had been lit, and even then, would it have killed the King and achieved its goal? Well for the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, Richard Hammond of “Top Gear” fame goes on an absolutely AMAZING journey of exploration to answer that question.

Part history, part techie thriller this program (which can be seen in its entirety on YouTube in 8 segments of about 8 – 10 minutes a piece, see above link for the first of the instalments) does an amazing job of researching just what would have been the destructive and subsequently human toll had this plot succeeded.  I found this thrilling and humbling to realise this could very easily have been the moment that altered the British History more monumentally than anything else – and was really only just narrowly avoided.  Really fantastic information that will shake you up for sure. (Think 9/11 and the French Revolution in a one stop shop)

So for the 405th time since the day the Gunpowder Plot was foiled,  join all of us around the country in blasting our skies full or fireworks in commemoration of the blast that never was – whether you are in London,

a village green

Sparkling Away at Pittencrieff Park 2011

or just waving some sparklers in your local park or back garden (safety tip: fleece mittens melt when in close contact to sparks),

Have a Safe &  Happy Bonfire Night!

Tattie Howking

I had every intention of firing off a cheery piece to enhance my excitement of our upcoming two weeks break from school known as the October Holidays.  Whilst some folk (my husband) still refers to this time of year as the “Tattie Howking”, (‘Tattie’ being potato and ‘Howking’ being to dig up from the ground…i.e. Potato Harvest) and I can see on my daily commute fields of rich green leaves becoming acres of freshly turned soil over night, I nursed the mistaken notion of  a happy harvest bounty commemorated in this quaint idiom.  Yeah, not so much.  Apparently the history of potatoes is just not terribly fun any way you slice it – get it?!

Basic Anatomy of a Potato Plant

For a quick recap of how the potato come to Europe at all, we need to return to 1532 to the region of Peru/Bolivia  in South America with the not-so-welcome arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors in search of gold.  There is evidence that the potato had been in cultivation in this region for about 3,000 – 7,000 years and may have grown wild for as long as 13,000 years ago.  In Jeff Chapman’s, “The Impact of the Potato: The Story of History’s Most Important Vegetable”, he cites Dr. Hector Flores for the extensive use of the potato in Pre-Inca cultures in the Peruvian Andes as well as its representation in Nazca and Chimu pottery.

Funeral of Atahualpa (who had been held captive by Pizarro and De Soto in 1533, who converted to Christianity but was executed anyway. Nice)

The Incas had developed a system of dehydrating and mashing the “batata”, (which is actually a sweet potato but the Spanish mis-pronounced it and attached the new word to what we now know as “potato”) into something called chunu.  This substance could be stored for up to 10 years and was a welcome insurance against crop failures.  The Spanish begrudgingly began to use potatoes as basic rations on their ships, and by 1570 a few Spanish farmers began to cultivate them on a small-scale.

Mature Potatoes in the Field

From Spain, the potato made a modest expansion throughout neighbouring European countries for the next two hundred years, but was considered fodder for animals and sustenance for the starving.  Even peasants refused this new addition that had arrived from a heathen civilization and suspected it to be linked with witchcraft.  This attitude changed for three reasons; by the end 18th century potatoes were often the only crop left after the marauding armies of the various wars had plundered the landscape for grain crops, vineyards and livestock, then there was the growing realisation that the tuber was not harmful but beneficial to health, and finally because of active public relation campaigns from the aristocracy of countries from the USA to Britain, France and even Russia.  Active PR efforts included Thomas Jefferson serving potatoes in the White House to Louis XVI sporting a potato flower in his buttonhole, to Marie Antoinette wearing the potato blossom in her hair, and even Catherine the Great and subsequently Tsar Nicolas I enforcing the cultivation of potatoes through edicts, all were trying to elevate the status of the very practical potato.

This top down adoption was motivated for the simple reason that the potato could produce more food using much less land than traditional grains, and was high in nutrients and could help protect against the routine famines that had plagued Europe for so long.  So at the dawn of the 19th century, after several centuries of faffing about, the humble potato was gaining in use and statue throughout Europe.  From there it help fuel huge population booms and even in part the Industrial Revolution by providing more people with food from a fraction of the land that was once needed to do the job.

In Ireland however, the potato was embraced more completely than by any culture since the Incas.  While in other European countries it was finally recognised as an important food, in Ireland it was often the only food.  A diet of milk and potatoes can (if need be) provide all the essential nutrients to maintain health, reproduction and decrease infant mortality.  By 1840 almost half of the population of Ireland was entirely dependent on the potato which had now narrowed to just one or two high-yielding varieties.

Potato with blight

Enter the “Tattie Howkers”, the name given to the Irish who would travel to Scotland to help bring in the potato harvest for cash in the wake of the Potato Famines.  For the next 90 or so years this would be how the majority of spuds made it from field to shop up until WWII.  This was back-breaking work and was often performed by children from the age of 8 years onwards.  In the fields from dawn to dusk in the October weather of Scotland – bbbbrrrrrr!

Two Row Potato Digger (Maine, USA 1935)

The digger would unearth the potatoes and the Tattie Howkers would walk behind to gather the harvest and load it into the barrels.  In addition to the hourly pay you could usually take home as much as you could carry from the fields.  Now this remained the general practice of essentially migrant labour up until the 1940s and the arrival of the war.  Since one of the most beneficial things about potatoes were that not only could children plant, harvest and even cook potatoes…maybe then it should be children whose job it fell to sustain the harvest.

Young girls picking potatoes - Scotland

Here are a few clips from that era to get the children of Britain out there to bring in the spuds, which apparently rot if left in the ground too long.  These came with all sorts of severe copyright threats, so I apologise that I can only provide the links to the videos.  Do check them out they are a hoot.  The first is an animation aimed at Scottish children (tam ‘o shanter, sporran and all) to get them motivated for the job.

http://scotlandonscreen.org.uk/database/record.php?usi=007-000-002-155-C

This next one seems to be for Glasgow in particular – Don’t worry if you can’t understand what they are saying, you get the basic idea.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=82453

This last one is aimed at the larger British population and is a bit easier to understand.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=51286

Another serious public relations campaign for the essential potato harvest.  This was the new status quo from the  war really up until the 1980s, when a combination of very hearty Scots teenagers and some new migrant labourers from Eastern European countries completed the task.  My husband still speaks enviously of some friends of his that took part in his youth. You could make enough cold hard cash in that two-week period to buy yourself your own TV for your bedroom – a luxury above all else at the time!  Of course all of this labour has now been replaced by machines that can do the work with a  fraction of the time and effort.

So, For the next two weeks as I lounge around in my dressing gown until noon, I will give my own quiet homage to not only the worldly and nutritious potato, but also to generations of workers, mainly children, who harvested the crops and to this day allow me a pre-scheduled fortnight off in October.  Many thanks!